Number of purchases and sales, market values, supply and demand: the market indicators for second homes all have a plus sign, particularly as regards seaside and luxury properties. Versilia, and Forte dei Marmi in particular, are confirmed at the top in terms of property values and quality, with a very high percentage of luxury and super-luxury villas.

Photographing the trend are two studies recently released by Fiaip, the Federation of Estate Agents, and Immobiliare.it.

Buying and selling on the rise

The Fiaip research office has noted a clear increase in second-home purchases and sales in Italy: while in the first quarter of 2021 they accounted for 5.5% of the overall residential market, by the end of 2022 they had risen 37%.

In the whole of 2022, 278.000 second homes were bought and sold in Italy (+24% compared to 2021) and projections indicate a further increase of around 10% in 2023. Growth in mortgage interest rates, Fiaip analysts explain, is only marginally affecting this market, while it has already caused a drop of about 3% in first home purchases.

The sea remains at the top of buyers’ preferences: 72% want to buy here, against 10.8% of those who choose cities of art and 6% of those who opt for the countryside and the mountains respectively.

Luxury, rising demand and supply

According to data from the Observatory on the luxury residential market in Italy, produced by Immobiliare.it Insights, demand for properties in this segment in Italy is growing steadily: in 2022 the increase was 9% compared to the pre-Covid period. The supply of luxury properties is also on the rise, now representing 2.3% of the entire Italian market.

The overall value of the luxury stock is close to €50 billion, and within it, villas are the properties where most of the value is concentrated: €27.8 billion at the end of 2022, up 8% from a year earlier, against €20.1 billion for flats.

Versilia ranks third in Italy

The largest stock, over 6 billion euro, is in Milan, while Rome follows with 4.5 billion.

But third place does not belong to a major city, but to Versilia, just one billion away from the capital: the luxury properties concentrated here are worth 3.47 billion.

A surprising figure, but one that can be explained by the composition of this segment in the Versilia area, where more than three quarters (77%) of luxury properties are villas. Forte dei Marmi, in particular, boasts one of the highest quality real estate offers in the world, capable of satisfying even the most demanding Italian and international clientele.